Naruto 1. i

**A/N: **_Excessively long title but the lyrics don't make sense broken up. So. The idea came to me for SasuSaku month, so I wrote it down for the "phobia" prompt, and posted it up on my ss blog. But after a lot of consideration and flailing over it, I decided to just continue it here without having to bend anything to fit a theme. I edited and fleshed it out before posting it up. Pleasepleaseplease remember to leave a review! I'd love it enormously._

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_"Of if you can't stay, take me with you…" _

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He didn't leave her on the bench.

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"We shall begin tomorrow morning at five. Be ready."

Sakura watched Sasuke nod, hands shoved into his pockets as he looked around the room. It was cold down here, colder than she had expected, and goosebumps trailed along her arms. The five young Sound nin that led them down here had accompanied them since she woke up in Sasuke's arms miles and miles into the Fire Country. They left as quickly as they had ushered them into the poorly lit room with the two figures standing resolutely in the dark.

She could tell the man standing next to Kabuto, tall and haughty, was Orochimaru. His hair and eyes were the wrong color and his face was bandaged away. Sakura almost shivered when she looked at him. Who's body had he taken this time?

But she couldn't really afford to shiver, so she steeled her spine and breathed.

Sakura stood tall and with her chin high. She could not afford to look as scared as she felt, could not afford to make herself look weak.

"And what about her?" Sasuke asked, jerking his head behind him to his left side. Her entire body stiffened at the callous way he referred to her.

Orochimaru laughed lowly, and Kabuto's glasses glinting with sharp light. "I'd love to run a few tests on her," she said in an unkind voice. Her chest constricted with pure fear.

"If you touch her, we're gone," Sasuke snapped, taking his hands out of his pockets and curling them into fists. "I have no time for your freak show experiments to try and attach another arm to her body."

"Oh, I would do much more than that, Sasuke-kun," Kabuto replied.

"_I dare you_," he hissed. Sakura felt his chakra flex and shift. She could almost see his eyes bleeding red. "I _dare_ you to try. You will accommodate her and train her as necessary. And if I find out you're doing more, then you're _dead_. Do you understand me?"

All the fear flooded out of her body, Sasuke's harsh voice treading against her nervous system with confidence she didn't have and suddenly she looked them in the eye.

Sakura watched Orochimaru smile slowly at her hard stare. "Yes…Kabuto can train this girl just fine," he said smoothly.

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Training with Kabuto is terrifying.

He teaches her Earth Release jutsu she barely gets the hang of before coming at her with chakra scalpels, urging her to defend herself. He teaches her the cruelest genjutsu and forces her to practice on men with faces she does not know. He teaches her medical ninjutsu, tearing victims apart for her patch together again before they bleed out. He teaches her to create deadly poisons and tests them on her, forcing her to extract the poison manually before it kills her.

He pushes her body and her mind and her heart to every imaginable limit she has and just when she feels like letting the ground swallow her up and take her far far away, she thinks of Sasuke, and his own painful training that he doesn't speak of once.

There is a goal she promised to help him accomplish, and for that, she needs to be strong.

So she grew stronger and watched the world become colder.

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Walking through the base in the morning for training was one of the highlights of her day - right after leaving Kabuto's presence at night. Her room was right across from Sasuke, so he had a habit of waiting for her to finish getting ready for them to walk together until they parted ways.

Their footsteps were always loud and lazy, too tired for stealth in a prison they owned.

Sakura played with her shoulder length hair and frowns mildly at the split ends. "Medical training with Kabuto is actually harder than field training," she said in a sleep-thick voice. "Especially the chakra scalpels."

"Specialized training is always harder than just learning to fight," Sasuke said with a shrug. Sakura nodded, searching for something else to say so their footsteps don't echo so loudly.

"I guess. I just feel like knocking heads today."

"You _always_ feel like knocking heads."

"I resent that."

They get to the point where the tunnels split apart, the training grounds to the left and the lab to the right. Sakura sighed internally, looking at Sasuke expectantly. She hated leaving him to his own devices. If she had it her way, she'd be able to keep an eye on him the whole day.

But she doesn't have it her way most of the time.

She pressed a hand to his bicep and smiled softly, before turning to leave.

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Sakura learns to sleep with clothes she can fight in, learns to become hyper aware of every touch lest she wake up strapped to an examination table, learns to think of Sasuke whenever she is bleeding her heart out. She learns how to survive, losing the girl she came here as. She learns how to to survive as the girl with hip length hair and heavy callouses on her palms. She learns to watch out for Sasuke at every turn, with hands that heal just as much as they break.

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"I'll be stronger than him soon," Sasuke murmured.

Sakura nodded, continuing to braid her hair as she read scrolls. He sat upright on his bed, leaning against the wall and gazing around the room. He still had a towel around his neck and dark pants riding low on his hips.

"I watched you train with him yesterday. He was working against you harder than he should have," she murmured. The image of Sasuke jabbing and parrying and slicing with his chukoto would always be burned in her mind, no word strong enough to encapsulate the flexing of muscle under pale flesh as he moved. "When do we leave?"

He smirked a bit. "Soon. We'll need a team first."

Sakura frowned, looked up at him and tossed her long braid over her shoulder, flinching when it slapped against the bruise on her back. She leaned back on her hands and openly looked at him. "Just me and you isn't gonna cut it this time is it?" she muttered, brows furrowed.

"I wish," he said through a sigh.

Quietly, she is pleased - more people to help her keep this boy alive when he finds the man that ruined his life. More people to bring him back from his fight with everything still attached where it should be. She'd decided that she had the skill to heal him after his fight with Itachi, but everything up to that point is a blur for her. How would they track him down? Hunter-nin would follow them resolutely wherever they traveled.

Just the two of them just wouldn't cut it in that environment, with the scrutiny of the world to follow them wherever they went, and Naruto following the trail on whatever chance he got. There were so many anomalies that they still had to consider.

Sakura is too scared to send him on his own to a battle she doesn't know he'll come back from.

"Whatever. At least you get to kill that nasty snake," she said with a snarl; every mention of Orochimaru was like a disease on her tongue to her. The pink haired girl rolled up her scroll and tossed it on the bed standing and crossing her arms. "Who are you thinking of?"

"Two or three people. They're at different bases, so it'll take some time to actually recruit them," Sasuke said, watching her pace slowly.

Sakura shrugged with a feral grin growing at her lips. "We have all the time in the world."

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"Why don't you ever cut your hair?"

It is two in the morning and Sakura is trying to stuff her face with tomato-stuffed onigiri, a stick of yakitori, several different pieces of takoyaki when Sasuke suddenly pulls a strand of her hair from her shoulder and plays with it, making her choke on her food.

Sakura is not sure when he took off his shirt - was it the third kiss or the fourth? The sight of him with lax, bare shoulders does something to her chest and her throat suddenly didn't want to cooperate with her any more.

She took a moment to swallow and flush heavily, the skin of her cheeks and neck burning. Sakura is angry for a quiet moment because _when will he stop making her so damn flustered?_

"Not sure," she lied. She glared at the smirk playing at his lips, a lock of her hair still between his fingertips. "I just…prefer it long."

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Sakura decided a long time ago she wouldn't cut her hair until she'd helped Sasuke kill Itachi. It was a small burden, the mane of thick pink that was always tangled and unruly from lack of care - because there is so much more to do than hair maintenance and there is so much more to worry about perpetual dryness.

It was a small burden that she would be carried until she helped Sasuke relieve his.

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Meeting with Naruto is more painful than she expected.

She can feel Sasuke beside her, looking down on her old teammate with a cold stare neither of them could ever read.

"You both need to come home," Naruto laments, his voice catching and looking betrayed, desperate and betrayed and resentful. He is trailed by Team Gai, looking more than a bit disgusted at them.

Sakura pulls on the collar of her mesh shirt, pulls the long braid falling down her back over her left shoulder, not meeting Naruto's eyes. "There are a lot of things you don't understand, Naruto-kun."

There is nothing more for her to say as the blonde beckons Sasuke down for a fight, pulling at the jealous rage that he is not very good at hiding, not very good at keeping at bay when the rival he will always resent calls him down with a sharp teeth and a sharp smirk.

Sakura watched them, wondering what idiot let Naruto run all the way to Otokagure alone as Team Gai sans Gai himself come upon them, intercepting Sasuke and his attack.

"You idiot!" Neji snarled, shoving him as he sank into a fighting stance. Tenten pulled out weapons, and Lee looked wantonly at her above with a stare that made her twitch in agitation. "You weren't supposed to go ahead without us!"

"I had no choice!" Nauto huffed, pulling out another kunai and staring at Sasuke angrily.

Sakura sighed, jumping and flipping and falling next to Sasuke in a crouch. The wind she whips through slaps against the bare skin between her thigh-high boots and skirt and litters it with goosebumps.

"We don't want to fight you," she intoned, trying to keep the guilt from her voice. She feels the angry glares more than she really sees them. "It's not necessary to shed blood over something trivial."

"Speak for yourself," Sasuke snapped. She glared at him, wondered when he got so bloodthirsty.

"There's nothing trivial about this!" Naruto seethed, looking at her with fury and tossing an errant kunai. She formed hand signs faster than she could blink at the weapon, a thick and earthen wall coming up in front of Sasuke and blocking him.

It crumbled as the dark haired boy spoke. "If you want a fight so badly, dobe, we'll give it to you," he murmured, cocking his head to the side.

Sakura was forming hand seals before he could pull out his sword once more.

She watched the dreamy look in Naruto's eyes as he fell, the others surrounding him.

"You've been working on your genjutsu," Sasuke commented, watching an unconscious Naruto twitch his fingers into a fist and Tenten shoulders shift in a sharp motion against the ground. "You weren't able to affect several targets before."

"Well, yeah. They won't wake up any time soon. They think they're fighting us," Sakura said with sagged shoulders, looking up at Sasuke red in the face from his almost-compliment. "Can't let you be the only one to show off."

"I had no intentions of showing off," he snapped, cutting a sharp stare at her. Sakura spout out a mean laugh, glaring back.

"As if! You were so eager to show off your _fantastic new abilities!_ The only person you need to be worried about impressing is me, Sasuke-kun," Sakura ranted, stepping towards him to shove him and staring down at the Leaf shinobi again. Their foreheads glinted in the afternoon sun, metal reflection bright light that made her dazed for a moment. "Let's just go. Gai is probably finished fighting with Orochimaru."

"He's going to want us to kill them," he said, giving Sakura a hard stare. "You shoudn't have just left them unconscious."

"Having an entire team of Leaf shinobi dead right now wouldn't be beneficial to anyone right now," the pink haired girl reasoned. "Just shut up and come on."

Sasuke rolled his eyes and followed.

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The night they come to kill Orochimaru leaves jitters through her spine.

She has her medical pouch strapped to her back, bags of poisonous senbon strapped to each thigh, and a Sasuke to her left with his sword tossed over his shoulder.

"You can still turn around, you know," Sasuke said, looking forward as they walked down the halls they had so many times before. Sakura braided and rebraided the ends of her hair, staring down at her shoes and hoping Orochimaru didn't get too gross.

"As if I'm leaving you by yourself," Sakura muttered.

"I can handle him by myself," Sasuke continued, tossing her a pointed look over his shoulder. "I'll be fine."

"Sasuke-kun, what did I promise you when you brought me here?" Sakura asked, eyes trained to the floor studiously.

"You promised...to help me."

"Even when you don't want it."

She swallowed the fear, an old fear - the rejection that always stung in her chest as the little genin in Konoha - that always managed to slap her in the face whenever it came to him, and looked up. She met his sideways gaze as evenly as she could as her voice from three years ago echoed through her ears like the cold memory it was. "I will be beside you, even when you don't want me to, because I promised to protect you and I promised to help you reach your goal."

Sasuke shrugged, his footsteps stopping as he faced Sakura. "You know I'll never hold you to that if you want to walk away," he said, looking hard and serious and older than fifteen.

"I know," Sakura replied. Smiled. Ran pale, calloused fingers over her scalp and looked down again. "I know, Sasuke-kun. But right now, this is what I chose."

They are quiet for a long time until they continue down the hall, stopping when they get to Orochimaru's door. Sasuke points a hand towards the door, glowing a hot electric blue that crackles with raw chakra, but she holds out a hand for him to wait. She ignores the questioning glare he gives her when she steps back and claps her hands together in the snake seal.

The wall in front of them crumbled, crushing the wooden door between it and fallen to see an upright Orochimaru in bed, staring indignantly - but moreso surprised.

Sasuke lifted his hand once more, the raw energy shooting out and piercing he Sannin by his wrist to the wall behind him.

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Killing Kabuto was sweeter - honey sliding down the back of her throat with a swallow of satisfaction.

Sakura had almost grinned when she'd seen him coming through the entrance of the room, snake skin and blood littering the floor. Her hands flit through seals until chakra scalpels stretched from her hands and she glared like a lionness, ready for her dinner.

"Try and impress me," Sasuke drawled, stabbing his sword into the ground and leaning onto it with his hand as he watched Sakura stalk towards Kabuto, who was rapidly questioning the beheaded snake laid out on the ground.

"Don't I always?" she called over her shoulder.

And then she was flying.

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They leave the base, leaving Orochimaru and Kabuto's bodies in their wake. It is a black sky with pale stars that do not do the job of lighting the way, but she follows Sasuke's knowing footsteps until they're just outside of Otogakure, in a small civilian village that is quiet and empty as they come in.

They book a small in, ignoring the old woman smiling on them as they trudge into the room they booked.

"I need a shower," Sakura muttered, grasping the key from Sasuke's hand and shoving it into the door. And somewhere to wash her clothes. She'd splattered so much blood over her shirt and skin when she'd slit Kabuto's throat. "A long, hot shower. And antibacterial soap. And a priest so I can get you an exorcism."

"Don't be over dramatic," Sasuke replied, leaning against the wall and crossing his arms.

"Over dramatic is what I do, damn it. You're the one who's always stoic. I'm the emotional one in this fucked up pair. I have to play my role somehow," Sakura half-hissed, jamming the door open to reveal a small one-bed room, that looked immaculately clean. The sight brought a large smile to her face. "Thank _god_."

"You done?" Sasuke prompted. Sakura frowned, watching him walk in behind her as he dropped his cloak.

"Well, not really. I could go on for a little bit."

"Of course you could." Sasuke stepped towards her, grasping her chin between his fingers and leaning in for a kiss.

Sakura's body melted, flushed with indescribable warmth that flooded through her skin. She untied her cloak at her neck and grasped the sides of Sasuke's shirt, clenching and fisting at the white fabric. He curved his hand around the back of her neck, stepped closer and trailed his tongue against her bottom lip.

She gasped, breathing hard and stepping away from him. "No no _no_, okay. I am going to _shower_ and you are not going to _distract me_," Sakura snapped, slapping him against the bare skin of his chest and ignored his smug smile.

"I'll come with," he decided cockily.

Sakura almost grinned at him.

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Sasuke laid beside her, skin warm and heart pounding slow in his chest, and she still felt the fear constricting her throat like a vice. There was so much more to do. So much more they had to go through to reach their end game.

So much more danger.

No matter how long she tried convincing herself that she had nothing new to fear, it still hit her again and again, fresh waves of paralyzing hysteria that froze her to her bones because_ it didn't matter_ how fast he was and_ it didn't matter_ how many jutsu he learned and _it didn't fucking matter_ how many people he already killed. when he could still die to someone with more power than they held between them.

And she feared it more than her own death, losing this boy she cannot unlearn to love no matter how many dark moments she wished to.

So Sakura pull the blankets up to their shoulders, naked flesh pressed firmly into his and mouth aligned to his pulse point. She pressed a hot kiss to the thin skin beating with life just beneath it and willed herself to fall asleep.


	2. ii

**A/N: If you don't like Karin, you should click out.**_ In this AU, Karin is not in love with Sasuke. This is my goddamn excuse for SasuKarin and SakuKarin broship and no one can take it away from me. Also, Sakura isn't buddy buddy with Suigetsu (but it doesn't last because SuiSaku broship is apart of my life dreams). _

_For this chapter I had to go back and reread a lot of chapters in the 300's and it makes me feel so NOSTALGIC about reading Sasuke hurrying to find Itachi and Jiraiya fucking dying and all these Akatsuki that lived (at that point lol they were dropping like flies). __I've also realized that to finish this, I'm going to have to go back and do **a lot** of rereading, even if the dialogue and plotline to this isn't going to follow the manga completely. It'll take time to skip through things I don't need as well as putting it together to fit my own plot here. So chapters WILL be slow in coming. Be patient with me._

_The SasuSaku month theme to this chapter would be "impulsive". Get it? My body moved on its own? Haha. Ha. Dear god I hate Sasuke so much. _

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Sakura didn't like bathroom lights - they ended up being too bright and illuminated every little flaw her body held. She stopped and stared at the mirror's reflection for a moment, paddle brush dangling in her hand as bottle green eyes roamed over her the reflection before her. Her small bandaged chest, her thick scar running over the right side of her ribs, her thighs that were too skinny to be healthy.

She was a nukenin now, but she would always be a girl first. (A very insecure girl).

So in the harsh florescent lights, she gave herself a quiet moment to pick away at every ugly piece of her until she breathed again and went back to work.

"Which base are we going to first?" Sakura called out, brushing through her hair and wincing as she got out the tangles. She still heard Sasuke shuffling around and getting ready. They hadn't spoken much this morning – more so grunting and a few kisses to his jaw. The sky was still black with night outside. "And have you decided on who you want to bring?"

Sasuke appeared through the open bathroom door, pulling an arm through his shirt and frowning disapprovingly at her. "Why aren't you ready yet?" he said, eyes trailing her form. Sakura snorted

"Because I felt like doing my hair and we have the time," she replied smoothly, still brushing out her hair. "Answer the question already."

"Karin is a proficient tracker," Sasuke said, leaning against the door frame and watching lips twitch in a smirk. "Her techniques would help us locate Itachi more quickly than just using summons."

"It would," Sakura replied. Her lip twitched again until she ended up biting down on her bottom lip. She put down the hair brush on the counter and brought all her hair over to her left shoulder. Her fingers ran through the damp tresses, trying to make them lay down evenly. "Who else?"

"Juugo and Suigetsu," Sasuke replied. He watched the mirth trickle out of her eyes and be replaced by irritation. "Good combatants."

"You like ruining my fun," Sakura snapped. He didn't spend a lot of time thinking about his choices, did he? "Who are we getting first?"

Sasuke smiled just a bit. "Suigetsu."

"Oh goddamn it," Sakura muttered.

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She managed to weasel him into taking her out for breakfast. There was a lot of bickering and more kissing - a trail of her lips following the line of his jaw and throat and collar bones until he pinned her against the wall where his teeth found her neck and his thumb found her clit.

The walk out of the inn was infinitely more quiet, though. The villagers were just starting to come to life. It was foggy outside, the sun too pale to peak through the faint clouds overhead. Gravel roads crunched under their feet without an echo, air fresh and clean against their skin. It was cleansing for her soul, extracting all the anxiety and hatred that boiled inside of her. The oxygen in her lungs was too sweet and this world they'd stepped into was too small to be anything but grateful.

She'd left her hair unbraided just because, letting it fly around her as he breeze picked it up and played with it before passing away.

Sakura threaded her fingers through Sasuke's and reached up to place a soft kiss on his cheek. He blinked, looking at her with question, but she just shrugged and squeezed his hand inside her own.

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Suigetsu was simpler than she thought it'd be.

Sasuke pierced through the canister holding Suigetsu brutally. The glass shattered, and the water spilled out, his half-formed body following along. Sakura breathed in the familiar stench of lab chemicals and mold with reluctant lungs that made old images float to the surface just behind her eyelids. Unconsciously, she stepped closer to Sasuke as the liquid oozed onto the floor and closer to her shoes. Being in the vicinity of Suigetsu and literally inside his element would only serve her anxiousness further.

Memories of the vicious smile and teeth sharper than kunai blades linger in the back of her head when she sees him.

She has always been wary of Suigetsu.

"Me first, then the others?" he asked, raising his body from the water. His voice was a cold after thought to her subconscious - bringing back experimentation she'd refused to be apart of, the sharp screams of people she could not remove from her head.

"Two others," Sasuke clarified, watching his every move with precise intent. He seemed to be a bit wary himself. "We'll take Juugo from the Northern Hideout and Karin from the Southern Hideout."

"Really?" Suigetsu prompts. He's bringing his hip out from the water just as Sakura looks away, jaw set with embarrassment.

"What?"

"Nothin," he says, voice managing to echo. "Just don't like 'em. Just thought we won't be able to get along."

Sakura scoffs despite herself, granting them an eye roll. "Obvious, much?"

"Try lookin' me in the eye when you want to say somethin' smart, Sakura-chan," Suigetsu replied playfully, standing to his full height and grinning in Sakura's direction. "What's wrong? I don't mind if you take a little peak. I've got nothin' to hide."

"No thanks. I don't want to set myself up for disappointment," Sakura answered. He laughed loudly, still grinning with too-sharp teeth as the pink haired girl stared coldly at him. "And the point isn't to get along. All we need to do is to work together efficiently."

"Well, that's fine. You guys did save me after all, so I can play along for a little while," Suigetsu answered, eyes lingering onto Sasuke. "You're still crazy for choosing them."

"I know. He's kinda stupid sometimes," Sakura murmured, more to rile him up than anything. Sasuke glared indignantly at her, looking betrayed and annoyed. "Let's just go."

"There's somewhere I want you guys to take me first. Do you mind?" Suigetsu asked, crossing his arms at his chest. "I need to recover a little somethin'."

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They come to Wave Country, and Sakura's heart swims to her throat.

Standing in front of Zabuza and Haku's grave markers carves out memories into her chest that she doesn't want to remember. Naruto's loud, unwavering voice echoing through her ears and the image of Kakashi standing between the three of them and danger will always linger, no matter how hollow she makes her heart to them. Maybe it's fitting that they return to the very place that they became a team. Now, coming back home travel-weary to a village encased with greenery and sun instead of a never ending mist, it seems more ironic than anything.

Returning to where Team 7 was born as the two to abandon it, into a flourishing little town instead of a desolate, dreary thing.

But the sun still remains stagnant in the sky, whether hidden behind clouds or not, and the grass still grows impossibly thick around the two graves. These things don't easily change.

And even if she has come back in the same body with the same skin wrapped around her bones, Sakura has not. remained the same. Neither has Sasuke. There has been no constant in their strength, their loyalties, their goals for the future. It's more sad than ironic, Sakura decides.

He stands beside her, hands to his sides as Suigetsu picks up the executioner's blade and tosses it over his shoulder with triumph.

Sakura tries very hard blocks out the smell of salt water in the air as she purses her lips into a tight line.

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Karin was easy enough.

"So it really is you three," the redhead drawled, hands at her hips as she smirked mischievously at Sakura and Sasuke, then gave a sneer to Suigetsu. "Long time no see, Sakura."

Sakura could have burst into laughter at the callousness of the girl. "It's good to see you too, Karin," she said, moving forward and pulling her into a hug, wrapping her arms around the taller kunoichi's shoulders and breathing in the expensive perfume she doused herself in every day to hide the scent of the prison despair that clung to her. It was familiar and brashly feminine.

Karin only sighed and hugged back for a moment.

"Whatever, you sap. Why are you guys here in the first place?" she asked as her hands found their way to her hips. Suigetsu started grumbling about not getting a hug in the background, but he was ignored. Sakura stared sheepishly at her and shrugged. "Orochimaru isn't with you. Are the rumors true, then?"

"They are. And this isn't really a friendly visit," Sakura replied.

"We have a proposition for you," Sasuke explained, stepping forward to answer her.

"Can you take us somewhere that we can talk?" Suigetsu asked. "That's _not_ in the middle of the hall?"

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Juugo was harder.

One second Sasuke was opening the door to the jail cell, and the next, she was pinned to the concrete walls by a large, rough _thing_ molded with scales by the throat. She choked, eyes bugging out of her head but not quite seeing as her entire body went into overload. She felt her left shoulder being crushed and her ribs being bruised and an indesernible throbbing somewhere in her chest, piercing through her.

Something hard pressed down on her throat and for a long moment she wheezed for hair. There was high pitched noises and shouting, that barely registered through her ears, everything moving too fast for her brain to comprehend. Muted voices called out her name.

For a single moment, she went still and hoped for a kind death.

Before she could fully open her blurred eyes, the rough scales that pressed down on her throat disappeared.

"Do you _want_ me to kill you?" Sasuke hissed, Sharingan spinning a fresh-blood red. The suffocating murderous intent radiated around him, sharp and unyielding in the expanse of his chakra. Sakura saw his chukoto shoved into Juugo's side, not piercing through any vitals.

She found her lungs again.

Juugo shrank back, his gaze shifting from her own to Sasuke, and he began to shake. "I-I'm so-," he gasped out, winced in pain, stepping away and shifting from the sword stuck inside of him. Her heart hurt, abused ribs and his wounded gaze making everything thump with a terrible ache through her body.

The man - the boy - hidden in the monster.

_"He came willingly for rehabilitation."_ Karin's words echoed inside her head, clinical precision and pity pulling at her tone.

The half-finished jutsu of earth encasing the lower half of her body and pinning her to the wall fell away - she thought wryly about how and Sakura dropped onto her feet with the concrete floors scraping beneath her shoes. Karin rushed to her side, hands finding her shoulder and searching for more damage.

"You idiot," she hissed.

He looked at her for a long time before he sprinted back into this cell.

Sasuke glared in boiling anger and irritation, and Suigetsu stared in question, his giant butchering sword still grasped in his hand.

Karin ignored everyone, holding Sakura upright and pressing her wrist to her lips. She bit down as hard as she could, drinking in the healing chakra and feeling her bones shift back into place. After a moment, she could sit up on her own, giving the redhead a grateful smile and looking down on her bloodied and battered clothes.

"Um, Juugo?" Sakura called out. "You need to come out here for a little bit."

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After healing Juugo, they were at the mercy of the rock formations once more, three of them staring down her and Sasuke. There was still bits of concrete and dust stuck to her skin, and the sun was relentless against her pale skin, but Sakura just squinted and endured.

When she saw them all together this time - the tracker who could pinpoint a single person through a hundred different chakra signatures, the monster hidden in a man who could obliterate anything in his path if he got enough mind to with shackles left to Sasuke's grasp, and the swordsmen who could split anyone in half with a blade bigger than himself - she saw the threads stitch together in her head. He may not have spent much time thinking on cultivating a team very well, but she understood now. Maybe she would always be weary of Suigetsu's presence, and maybe Juugo would have very little control of himself away from Sasuke's gaze, and maybe Karin would just end up killing them all in their sleep.

But the maybe's wouldn't change the picture whichever way she twisted her gaze. Hebi would be ruthlessly efficient. Lethal.

And when the end goal was killing Uchiha Itachi, she needed Sasuke to have every advantage he could get. It wasn't just him against his older brother any more. The world would be hunting them down soon.

Sakura was willing to accept _any_ power she could get her hands on to keep this boy safe.

She'd proven it before - stealing away in the dead of night to men who would sooner slit her throat than save her.

Just for him. Always for him.

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"What the hell is this?" Sakura said aloud, green eyes following the line of abandoned buildings sharply. "Didn't have a hideout in Fire Country."

"Not to mention none have been this much of a," Suigetsu cut in.

"He didn't," Sasuke said, continuing to walk forward. His gaze held no curiosity - just quiet intent. "My clan used this place as a weapon's store house. We'll get ourselves equipped here."

The city looked gloomier and colder with the storm clouds raised above - gray downcast casting shadows everywhere. She wasn't sure if it was run down by war, or just simply age. There was decay and mold coating every surface that made it look like rot was in the very presence of the buildings. There was a stale taste to the air, and a weight that she couldn't quite comprehend, like high altitudes making it harder to draw breath.

Sakura turned her gaze to him as the walked, cocking a brow. She was not fond of being lead blindly.

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The two cats led them to an old woman.

Sakura didn't pay her much mind - a much younger girl, possibly her grand daughter, immediately gave her a new set of clothes, a black cloak, two senbon pouches, a roll of bandages, a medical pouch (filled with a surprising amount of things she'd needed), and new boots.

The girl smiled at her. "I don't think you'll be needing anything else," she said. Sakura shook her head and smiled politely. She was pointed to another room off to the side so she could change, and before she could be thanked, moved onto Juugo and began looking for a shirt that could actually fit him.

Sakura stepped into the small room and began undressing. She dropped her tattered clothes onto the floor and kicked them aside. When she was down to her underwear and chest bindings, she reached down and slipped a senbon from the weapons pouch on the floor and used it to cut free her breasts.

She dropped the senbon and began wrapping her chest once more when the door opened suddenly.

Sakura was hissing, covering her breasts with one arm and aiming a fistful of senbon in the other when she saw Sasuke.

"Can you at least knock?" she snapped, tossing the weaponry in his direction anyway. He knocked them sideways neatly with the back of his arm guard.

"Do you need help with that? he asked, pointing to the roll of bandages that she'd dropped to the floor. Sakura nodded reluctantly, holding out the bandages to him. Sasuke stepped forward, the edges of his shirt sleeve brushing against her skin and making her shiver.

He was quiet for a long time, busying himself with unwinding the bandages and wrapping them around her form. He was closer than he had been for days, since the morning they'd left to find Suigetsu. Sakura didn't like when he'd pulled away from her, slipped between a detached barrier than separated between them.

But now, with his breath warm and hot against her neck, all she felt was increasingly tired that they couldn't find another bed to settled under for a few days - a few _weeks_. It felt like he was trying to touch as much skin as possible, sending errant shivers down her spine. She fought hard against the little gasps trying to slip through her throat.

"You shoved me out of the way when I was unlocking the cell," Sasuke said finally, staring at her when he finished. He dropped the bandages on the floor somewhere, forgotten, while his hands settled on the dip of her waist, his thumb brushing over the scar on her ribs. "You could have died."

"I'm not that easy to kill, Sasuke-kun," Sakura murmured, settling her forehead to the base of his throat.

"He came out of the cell and just had to by the throat," the dark haired boy continued. "It wouldn't have been that hard to snap your neck. If I'd have given him another second, he would have done just that."

"But I you didn't."

"You put too much faith in me."

"I honestly don't." There was nothing in the world that she would leave this boy to just conquer on his own without preparation, without prayers, without a trump card. If she couldn't, she'd bury him deep in the earth and never let him surface. "I'm not apologizing for it. I don't need a lecture."

"And I don't need you _protecting me_," he growled, fingers suddenly hot and tight against her skin. "Especially when you're attempting to do so poorly."

She sighed, stepping away from him and scratching at the back of her head. "I've always been trying to protect you. Why did you think I even wanted to follow you to Sound?" Sakura muttered, waving him away as she reached down to pull her shirt over her head. Words began spilling from her lips without her conscious effort. "You were about to leave Konoha to go to Orochimaru. I watched him put that fucking thing on your neck. Protecting you was the only reason I stayed."

"Do you know why I even _brought_ you to Sound?"

"Enlighten me. Why?"

"On a whim."

Sakura's head snapped up, skirt half way up her thighs and hands suddenly bunched into fists. "Excuse me?" she hissed, jerking on her clothing and reaching for her shoes.

"I wasn't doing it out of this twisted urge to protect you. I wasn't in love with you. I did it because I wanted to," Sasuke said, crossing his arms and raising a brow neatly at her. He stepped forward slightly, linger with each step as she stepped back equally, resent melting in her eyes. "And you were very useful to me. Your were trained according to my own abilities. You were taught medical ninjutsu because it would be useful to me."

Her mouth twisted hatefully, not meeting his gaze as Sasuke reached forward held her chin between his fingers. "Looking back on it, I knew it was a mistake. The path my life follows isn't a kind one. And that never mattered to you," he murmured, making her look him in the eye. She pushed him away but he reached back and gripped her by the arms. "You are the _best_ mistake I have ever made."

Sakura stopped breathing for a moment, swallowing her pulse back down her throat and staring at him with terse eyes. "I'm not a mistake. I've never been a mistake. Not when I'm doing everything I can to keep you safe," she muttered, not meeting his gaze.

"You standing right here is a mistake. I can't offer you a life that you deserve," Sasuke said, squeezing her arms tightly.

"But it's the life I chose. Beside _you_," Sakura answered in a muted tone. She managed a breath and a weak grin with eyes still stuck to her shoes. "You're the best mistake I've ever made."

He huffed out a laugh, his forehead falling onto her shoulder. "I better be."

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"Hey! One last thing. Do you know where I can get my boyfriend an exorcism?"

_"Sakura." _

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Rain pelted down on hair and cloak, squelching loudly beneath her shoes. Karin stood to her left, focused intently, and Sasuke to her right, unchangingly impassive. Sakura stood between them, smaller and meeker and much more painfully apprehensive.

At that moment, looking out into the rain and the forestry that lay before them, she thought that she felt very much like a child ready to go into a war, she thought that sixteen was too young for chasing after a man's blood, she thought that Sasuke very much reminded her of a hawk with mutilated wings on the verge of a crash landing, and she thought that they were all about to send themselves straight into hell.

"Let's move out," Sasuke commanded.

Regardless, when Hebi sprinted away, she followed.


	3. iii

**A/N:** _IT IS SEVEN AM AND NARUTO CHAPTER 685 FUCKED ME UP IT FUCKED ME UP. SO HERE YOU GO SS-NESS THAT IS NOTHING COMPARED TO CANON BECAUSE. CHAPTER 685._

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"Sakura-chan!"

She pressed her lips into a hard line.

Naruto stood next to a tall brunette she did not recognize, which made her intensely anxious, and Hyuuga Hinata with her Byakugan-active stare of weariness. They all wore white cloaks and had one of Kakashi's summons growled alongside them.

Her mind was racing with connecting the dots; they sought after her _deliberately_, so this wasn't just some shit luck. They were actively searching for her and Sasuke. With Kakashi's summon with them - and without the actual Copy Ninja - it was probably acting as a communication system between them. The brown haired man looked old enough to be a squad leader in his absence.

Sakura felt her jaw locking with irritation. She could not take them all.

The snake on her left shoulder flickered and twitched in irritation. "You seem to have terrible luck, Sssssakura-chan. What do you plan to do?"

"Not sure yet," she muttered.

But there were a few ideas. She reached minutely to the senbon pouch at the left thigh to slip three poison-coated needles between her knuckles.

Two squad leaders. Two squads. Summons used as a communication system. A communication system meant another team all together would probably end up storming through at any point as backup to overwhelm her if she ended up staying here too long to fight.

Or if they found Sasuke first.

Her knuckles tightened around the needles furiously.

"Sakura-chan, where's the bastard?" Naruto asked, still grinning triumphantly at her as she processed the scene. Her focus broke, brought back to him. "Is he close by? Did you leave him?"

Sakura was shaking her head before he even finished talking. "Don't get your hopes up, Naruto. We're still together," she said - whether she meant it as a lover or as a teammate or as an accomplice to the blood he wanted to shed, she wasn't sure. Regardless, watching Naruto's face crumple in on itself in confusion made the guilt sieze up her throat for a long time. "Sasuke and I still have a lot of work to be done away from Konoha."

She didn't expect the kunai sailing over her left shoulder, nearly impaling her summons. But Sakura had raised a brow at the off-trajectory of the weapon and let it sail just by her ear.

Ansei hissed in fury, slithering around her back to rest by her ear. "The impudent little _brat_!"

"You're always hanging around slimy snake bastards!" Naruto shouted furiously, pointing an indignant finger at her with bugged out eyes and a snarling face. "We know Orochimaru and Kabuto are dead! Why the hell do you guys think you have to run around chasing after Itachi when you should just come home so we can just help you!?"

"It doesn't _work_ like that, Naruto!" she shot back. Her patience was suddenly strung taut, the urge to scream and shake this boy until he understood running hot through her veins. "Sasuke doesn't want anyone's involvement in trying to kill Itachi - especially not Konoha! He's needs to do this on his own!"

"So then why the hell are you with him!? If he wants to do it all on his own, then why did you even go with him in the first place!?" Naruto screamed, clenched fists shaking with poorly concealed rage. Hinata and the brunette watched him carefully, the rage in his eyes flickering violently. "You-you _left_, Sakura! Both of you! And you didn't care enough about who you were leaving behind to even say goodbye!"

"We made a choice!" Sakura hissed, sharp control and icy anger a vice around her throat. He was not going to just blame them like that - she refused. This was so much more than just his hurt feelings. This was nearly three years of her blood splattered against cold, concrete walls to protect a boy serving himself to the hellfire that brewed inside of him. "Accept that! Sasuke needs me more than ever now, and I am going _to be there_! This isn't just about you bringing home your friends, Naruto! It's bigger than that!"

"Yeah it is! It's me bringing home_ my brother and sister!_"

She locked her jaw, fists biting down on the inside of her cheek for a moment to ebb away the sharp stinging of her eyes. The clock was ticking. "Talking is useless. I'm not going to stand here and waste my time," Sakura spat, glaring them all down. "Are you all going to let me pass peacefully, or are you looking for a fight?"

"I _am_ looking for a damn fight!" Naruto shrieked, slipping kunai from underneath his cloak and brandishing them in rage. "Don't pull any genjutsu bullshit like a coward! You come at me with everything you've got right here!"

Sakura barked out a mean laugh, sneering. "As if you could _handle_ me by yourself, Naruto."

He smirked back - bitter, angry, too young to looked that jaded. "As if you could handle _me_ without Sasuke!"

The blood in her body boiled in fury as she swallowed back he lividity. "You wanna know what I spent my time doing in Sound? _Training_. Harder than you and Sasuke ever had to. And I learned a lot. I can test out everything I know on you _any time you want_," she hissed, blades at her lips, aiming for whatever she could get his hands on.

Sakura was not prideful, but at this moment, with the kindest boy in the world hurling insults at her like she couldn't rip the ground into two right under his feet, she found pride held in the palm of her hands that had bleed hard enough to fill an ocean. She found pride to brandish and protect, a sword sharp enough to give wound no jutsu of her's could heal.

"_Enough_. We have on-sight capture orders on you and Sasuke Uchiha," the brunette spat, stepping before Naruto in a defensive position. There was sharp, clean precision, already deciphering where he wanted to cut her open. "Are you going to surrender peacefully, or are you looking to instigate a fight?"

Sakura lifted the arm unoccupied with the hidden senbon from her cloak, offering her hand for Ansei to slither onto. Her head lifted to her gaze, eyes bright and black and filled with intellect. "Go and tell Sasuke that we have two Leaf teams in the surrounding area tracking us, and that I'll be held up for a little bit," she spoke in a bored tone, not bothering to lower her voice. The snake flickered it's tongue in assent and disappeared in a thin puff of smoke.

"How did you know?" Hinata asked mutedly while the other two mutedly blanched.

"Not really _that_ hard to figure out, Hinata," Sakura drawled. She pointed to the large, spiked-collar bulldog with her free hand. "I also know Kakashi-sensei's summons are keeping you connected to the other team, right? Really innovative, if not a little obvious."

Before they could answer she let the needles fly, watching them embed themselves into the ninken's throat.

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Strength was not something she prided herself on. She had no exceptionally large chakra supplies, no matter how many soldier pills she could shove down her throat.

She couldn't throw a worthwhile punch to save her life.

Chakra scalpels did always did the dirty work instead. Sakura could speed through her enemies faster than the air could slip past their lips in a gasp, but the soft green knives that flickered and glowed split flesh more neatly with surgical precision she'd practiced. Her left hand found the muscles of Hinata's right arm, severing them from her use. Her right hand found a Naruto shadow clone's gut, bursting it into smoke and a choked shout. Every single hit was a calculated move, ten steps ahead of where they would plant their foot for a second strike. Even if it was so much harder to incapacitate than kill, she would do whatever it took.

This was how she had learned, and this was how she had bled. This is how she will fight - with more brain than the brawn she could not compensate for.

So when wood rose from the ground and encased her body restrictively, she writhed angrily against her restraints and pretended she wasn't fast enough to avoid it.

"Naruto, Hinata, fall back," the wood-user snapped, his hands clasped in the snake seal. Hinata leaped back obediently, clutching onto her arm with bitter pain and a glowing palm.

But Naruto stood in place, grinning at Sakura and wiping blood from his mouth. She watched the knuckles in his right hand clench. "You've gotten real strong, Sakura-chan," he declared, smiling harsh and feral. Almost gloating, but kinder. Proud.

"I got real smart too," Sakura allowed, blood on her teeth through the split lip of her smile.

He watched the clone's skin crack and crumble into dirt in horror.

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"A clone!?" Naruto shrieked, whirling his head around in search. "Hinata!"

But waiting above in the treeline, Sakura didn't give her a chance. In one hand, she threw down another volley of senbon, and the other, several smoke bombs she hoped were enough to clear the area. She formed another shadow clone, that poofed into existence beside her on the tree.

For a half second - one she could not surely afford - Sakura was struck by how pale and feral she looked. Crouched down with black smoke enveloping the background, her pink hair that was pulled back from her face against whitewashed skin made the rest of her look sharp. Dangerous. The baby that still lingered on her face seemed so nonexistent with the anxious clench to it's jaw.

But then she snapped out of it.

"Lead them as far away from here as possible," she whispered, watching the clone, spring across the field and into the opposite set of trees, sprinting over the branches and beyond.

The real Sakura masked her chakra completely, hearing Naruto shout and sprint after the clone, with Hinata and the wood-ninjutsu user following after him as fast as they could. Her heartbeat pulsed painfully in her throat, hoping and praying she couldn't be seen.

Anxious seconds ticked by until she was sure they'd disappeared. Sakura scuttled over on the branch, pressing her body to the tree trunk and breathing deep and hard. She clenched down on the bark beneath her thighs and shook until she'd calmed herself down.

Ansei poofed to life in front of her.

She almost peed herself.

"I've relayed the information. Sssssasuke-kun is quite busy right now. He'ssss currently battling against two memberssss of Akatssssuki...though it doesn't look like you need asssssisssstance anymore, hm?" Ansei snake wondered, looking toward the clearing filled with fading smoke, completely ignoring her sudden shock.

"What!? His _brother_?"

"No. Neither fit the description of Uchiha Itachi and Hoshigaki Kisame."

The sudden spark of tension left Sakura's stomach at once. "How's he doing?" she asked. The snake nodded it little scale head.

"Quite well, considering the circumstances."

Not quite well? What the hell was that supposed to mean? She knew for a fact that no snake summons would dare speak ill of Sasuke - moreso out of fear than respect - was that supposed to translate into sort of struggling or royally screwed?

Sakura sighed, standing from the tree branching and reaching an arm down for the snake to slithering onto her arm back onto her shoulder. "I don't have enough chakra to use a Doton to travel all the way back to where he is, and there's no time for me to go running back. I can't even _sense_ him from here," she muttered, crossing her arms. An idea formed in her mind, hazy and slightly disgusting. Her right arm shifted over to the inside of her left wrist, pressing down hard on her summoning tattoo. "Go back, Ansei. I need a larger summon."

Indignant, creature slithered out from her shoulder, twisting its body in front of her so it would look her in the face. "I have been more than ssssuficient!" the snake hissed angrily. Sakura rolled her eyes.

"Well, I'm sorry. Can you fit me into _your_ mouth?" she spat.

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For a minute, Sakura thought that her sliding out of a tree-sized snake's mouth was probably the weirdest position Sasuke has seen her in.

And definitely the least attractive.

But when she'd ended her chant of "_ew ew ew ew ew fucking disgusting_" and the summons disappeared with a disgruntled hiss, she scrambled to her feet and looked around. The sight before her eyes had her blatantly confused and standing mutely for a few seconds. Her eyes were glued to the blonde man, skin made of ink threads. She stared for a moment, enraptured by the oddity of his appearance in the clearing smelling too strongly of smoke.

"_Sakura_!" Sasuke roared, calling her attention to him.

She rushed over to him, noting his beaten and bloodied state, his shirt completely forgotten. Sakura fell to her knees beside him, putting her arm around his waist and his arm over her shoulder, attempting to stand with him. "I'm here to save your ass," the pink haired girl muttered, all the heroics lost on her as thought about how irritatingly heavy Sasuke was. "Please try and look a little happier."

"Your backup isn't going to do anything for you now!" the ink-thread man shrieked at her, laughing and grinning maliciously at her.

Sakura ignored him.

"What is he supposed to be?" she asked Sasuke wearily.

"He turned himself into a _bomb_," Sasuke hissed through grit teeth. "Ten kilometer radius. We need to be gone _now_."

"On it," Sakura muttered, shifting her arms around his waist to bring her hands into seals.

And before the Earth swallowed them whole, and before the hysterical ink-thread man could say any more, he burst into a hot white light that seared the edges of her skin raw and blinded her eyes like a malevolent sun.

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Long minutes passed between them, hidden deep inside the Earth as they waited for the ground to stop shaking.

The space around them was a deep black, no light from the surface permeating through. Sakura could only feel - Sasuke managed to dominate every single sense from where she'd sat on his outstretched legs. His forehead was pressed into the crook of her neck, his hair tickling the edges of her neck and his breath fanning over her collar bones. His arms wound around her held her in a bruising grip he hadn't bothered to let up yet.

She sighed, head leaning back against the rock as she shifted and arced against him. Her hand pulled away from his shoulder to his chest.

"Thank you," Sasuke said suddenly, breaking the silence. She tried to control the smile pulling at her face.

"Any time. I knew today would suck," Sakura murmured, the space around them glowing alight with green healing chakra. She saw the burns and bruises along Sasuke's back from over his shoulder and her jaw locked up in anger. "I felt it."

"I felt it more than you did," Sasuke said through a sigh. Sakura didn't bother hiding her snickers.

"Well, whatever. It's not over yet," Sakura replied, biting down on her lip. The mirth flooded out of her system. "Ansei filled you in, right?"

She felt him shrug against her. "Yeah...it's inconvenient, but not a total set back. We'll just evade them as much as possible and try to find a way to lose them," Sasuke replied, beginning to straighten up. He pushed her hand away from his chest. "Save your chakra. You're going to need it."

The light from Sakura's hand extinguished, throwing them into the blackness once more. "I'm not sure how far off I led Naruto and his platoon. Maybe a couple hours. Hebi is probably going to come here too. How are we supposed to get to Hebi?" she asked him in a meek voice. "How are we supposed to evade an entire team of Leaf and keep searching for Intel? They have all of Kakashi-sensei's summons with them."

"We'll figure it out," Sasuke said. She sighed, reached out in the dark until she found his hand and clasped it hard in her own.

"You're going to get hurt, and I'm not sure how well I can cushion the blow," Sakura whispered, voice swallowed by the dark.

"I'm ready. You knew I was ready when I told you we were going to kill Orochimaru, and you knew I was ready when we put together Hebi." Sasuke squeezed back, long and hard before letting his grip go slack. "Itachi will pay for his crimes. I'm ready for this to end right now."

"Promise you'll come back," Sakura whispered.

They stayed quiet for a long time, and she tried counting her heartbeats, tried bringing down her breaths from their hard and oxygen-less gasps, but all she knew was the brush of his callouses against hers in a bone-cracking grip when there was nothing in the blackness but _him_. All she knew was the shift of her arm from their legs to his chin. All she knew was his breath against her fingers as he kissed her knuckles.

"I promise," he breathed - promised, vowed, swore - onto her skin, "that I will always come back to you."

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**A/N:** _INSPIRED BY MY UNCONTROLLABLE FEELINGS FOR NARUTO CHAPTER 685. Also no new chapter for a little while bc I have to finish rereading the rest of the Itachi Pursuit arc and someone might find me dead on my laptop next Wednesday morning FROM SASUSAKU HOT FLASHES. PLEASE REVIEW. LOVE U. _


	4. iv

Many, many times, Sakura thinks she could cry herself a river and drown in it.

She sat in the tub naked as the water rose past her stomach and up to her breasts. Her hair fell behind her shoulders, curling into the water below he. Her legs were spread out lazily, one half bent and the other laid out before her, invisible through the soap suds that rose up on the water's surface. Every inch of skin was clear and unmarred by scars except for the long, vicious line going down her ribs.

Her body was the picture of relaxation, but her face told a sadder story.

Sakura grit her teeth hard enough to shatter them under the forcing, heaving out long, painful breaths. Her face was splotchy and red, stained with tears that had past and tears that still fell. She hiccuped a few times, holding onto the bathtub's edge as hard as she dared. The tears would not stop, every single second of all the moments when she hated this life and hated what she must do and hated the boy she has tethered herself to so willingly.

Sakura's chest heaved, a hiccup shifting into a sob too loud,making her bite down on one of her hands and let the sobs wrack her too frail frame. Her whole body twisted and seized up in pain, the need for a proper breath of air burning at her skin with heat.

She squeezed her eyes shut and bit down on her hand. The familiarity was not lost on her.

Many, many times, Sakura wants to cry herself a river and let herself drown in it.

Two sharp knocks at the door. Sakura jerks into silence. A pause. "Sakura."

Her entire body breaks out into goosebumps at the sound of Sasuke's voice, strung taut and hot as she willed away the choking of her throat. "Yes, Sasuke-kun?"

"Are you okay?"

She scowled for a moment at the painful burst of affection in her chest. "You should be laying down right now."

For a second, there is nothing but the sound of water pouring in the still-rising tub, before she hears his footsteps again. Her body relaxes again, a feline uncoiling muscles and stretching them out. Sakura wipes away the tear stains on her face with the back of her hand, closing her eyes, before submerging her head under the water.

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Sakura stumbles out the bathroom a good thirty minutes later, with wet hair that trailed down her back and wrinkled toes. The weapons pouches she carries on in her left hand seem heavier when she saw Sasuke surrounded by Hebi, already speaking, and wondering why hadn't she heard the other members return to the suite. They do not turn to her just yet.

Sakura is pleased to see Karin is already shouting at Sasuke, clenched fists and all.

"You're in no condition to be even thinking of that!" the redhead snapped, hands already at her hips.

"I second that," Sakura said, pulling their attention to her. She gives a sugary sweet smile to Sasuke, who's laid out on the futon looking better than he had when they came. "Because it's probably about Itachi."

Suigetsu sighed aloud, distinctly melancholy. "You couldn't have walked out in a towel, Princess?"

Everyone turns to glare at him - except for Juugo, who is sitting on the window sill shirtless and entertaining a small bluejay on the ridge of his finger. "I will kill you in your sleep," Sakura hissed, tossing down her weapons' pouches and clenching her fists.

"As if, yeah."

Sasuke gave out a bark of a laugh. "I'd watch. And give pointers."

"And I'd pull back her hair when she throws up after getting to close enough to smell your noxious fucking fumes," Karin replied with a smirk, tossing her own hair back with a flick of her neck. Suigetsu barked out a laugh,giving her a feral grin.

"Whatever. Call off your hounds, Sakura," the Mist nin said with a roll of his eyes and a dismissive wave. "Anyways - ya slimy bastards - I heard plenty about Akatsuki as a whole, but nothing specific on Uchiha Itachi."

Karin gave Sakura a helpless kind of look, and she returned it. Because men.

"They're after specific people. People with special kinds of chakra," Suigetsu finished. Sakura perked up in question, reaching down for her weapons pouches to strap them to her thighs just underneath her skirt, staring at Sasuke as the confusion pulled at his face.

"Special chakra?" Sasuke questioned.

"From what the animals tell me, Akatsuki have several bases from which they operate from," Juugo added, the small little bluejay flapping and chirping towards his shoulder. "They say that they feel strange, unpleasant chakra radiating from those places."

"Strange, unpleasant chakra? Spot on," Sakura muttered.

"Hmm, woulda never have guessed a bunch of stupid animals could sense chakra," Suigetsu said, stretching out and giving Karin a sidelong glance. "Then again, stupid chakra describes Karin pretty well, so I guess it makes sense."

Sakura hadn't even finished rolling her eyes by the time Karin had her foot through his head. "You stupid asshole!" she shrieked, splashing water everywhere. Sasuke looked on impassively, wiping water away from his cheek, and Juugo began to scowl.

"I am fed up with your shit talking!"

"C'mon, ack! Cut it out now!"

Sakura was still tying the straps of her weapons pouch onto her right thigh when she saw the curse marks spread over Juugo's face. She paused for a moment, squinting, before slipping out a few poisoned senbon and standing. She stood, clenching the thin needles between her knuckles very hard.

"Juugo?" she asked, voice cutting through the shouting. "Are you okay?"

"I...wanna...kill someone...," he ground out, looking up to stare at her with too-bright eyes. Karin and Suigetsu paused immediately, staring at the boy in question with apprehensive eyes.

He was screaming, beginning to charge, but Suigetsu and Karin were already at him, one holding him down by the waist, and the other holding him back with an arm around the neck. She mentally sighed, slipping her senbon back into the pouch at her thigh. Why did that idiot have to be covering the artery she wanted to hit?

"Shit, he's freaking out again!" Suigetsu shouted.

"Sasuke, hurry!" Karin hissed, shoving Juugo back when he gave a strong jolt forward.

Sasuke's eyes slipped from black to blood red, the spinning tomoe holding onto Juugo's own gaze. "Settle down, Juugo," he murmured, staring him down until the curse marks receded and he gasped for air, falling onto the floor.

The orange haired boy stammered out an apology, Sakura watched Sasuke's eyes close, his head loll forward, the deep sounds of sleep pulling at her ears. She rolled her eyes and walked towards him, shifting his body back onto the futon as he continued to breathe deeply.

"He overused his eyes with his fight against the Akatsuki," she muttered, scowling at his unconscious form petulantly, before standing once more. Her half-wet hair fell over him in a thick pink curtain, hiding his face from the rest of their team and as Sakura pressed a glowing green hand over his eyes and let her chakra sink into his skin like she's done a thousand times before, she sees the chakra build up and strain on his optic nerves that makes her click her tongue in disapproval.

The three of them were standing by the time she pulled away from him, standing onto her feet and tossing her hair back over her shoulder. "Juugo, Suigetsu, you watch him. I'll go out and get supplies with Karin," Sakura decided, walking back to the entrance of the bathroom to grab her boots. "And if he tries to get up, feel free to knock him out again."

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Karin and Sakura did a little bit more than get supplies - the amount of money the Elder Cat had given to Sasuke was almost ridiculous. So they bought more clothes, food to last a week's worth of travel for all of them, more hair bands for Sakura, a few new perfumes because why the fuck not.

Sakura loved Karin, had always admired her even though they were the same age and there was nothing about her life that Sakura would like to emulate some day. But the way she walked brought attention into a room, pulled focus onto her with sharp eyes and sharper smiles. The way she moved was deliberate and controlled, with so much grace that belonged somewhere more elegant. Her body was carved away and drained for years and years and years and it warped her into a warrior of a woman, a kunoichi in mind if not in body.

There was nothing about Karin that Sakura did not love. There was an age to her that was much more than just sixteen, just a girl with a lot of teeth marks along her skin. Her trips to the Southern Hideout weren't often, but they were important.

It kept her sane - they could be shinobi, but they could be young girls, shopping and teasing and walking down a street like the end of the world wasn't weighing down on their shoulders.

It was a bright, sunny day, so she was going to pretend - even for a little while - that it was a good one.

"You think Sasuke will be mad?" Sakura asked, carrying the bag in one hand as she pointed to a small little restaurant to the side of the road. "We kinda spent a lot."

Karin shook her head, and pointed to another. "I hope. I love irritating him."

Sakura fell a little bit more in love with the redhead.

After a few minutes, they decided on a little tea house that smelled better than all the restaurants combined. It made Sakura feel normal, human, as she stepped inside with her braid tossed onto her left shoulder and taking a seat at one of the little tables. There were few people, paying them no mind as they made sat down. She felt as delicate as the furniture, even though she new she could rip the ground under this little town apart. It was just her and an old friend ready to stuff their faces with sweets.

"So. You and Sasuke," Karin prompted almost immediately, looking through the little menu with feigned interest.

Sakura sighed. Of course. "Me and Sasuke."

"Remember the first time we met and you said he would never be interested in you in that way?"she said in an almost conspiratorially, like a thirteen year old girl who's ruined body siphons chakra into others for them to heal who can still talk about boys like she has the time - the taste of Karin's skin is still in the memory of her tongue from that first time.

Sakura snorted a bit, kicking her under the table, but all Karin did was snicker. "Hmm. Can't quite recall that...I do remember Suigetsu commenting on your killer legs at the hideout the other day while you were putting on your boots," she said, cocking a brow at her.

Karin didn't even flinch. "Well, I remember. Like I remember Sasuke walking in on you half dressed and you not saying a single word about it."

"It's nothing he hasn't seen before," Sakura hissed in a low voice, flushing red at the memory of Sasuke's hands against her chest.

"Whoa, there. Let's not get into details."

Karin cackled as Sakura groaned, hands covering her face. "I hate you so much," she muttered, putting her hands in her lap as she heard the waitress walk up towards them. They ordered easily - Karin giving Sakura a raised brow at the amount of food she wanted - before watching her leave.

"Why did you come with us, Karin?" Sakura asked suddenly, trying to keep the redhead from embarrassing her anymore.

Karin blinked, setting down her menu on the table and leaning back into her seat. She felt her cross her legs under the table. "Are you asking that because you're curious, or because you don't want me asking anything else?" she said.

"Both, actually."

"Typical."

"Did you expect anything less?"

Karin snorted, rolling her eyes. "I guess not. But I said it before, didn't I?" she said, pulling off her glasses and using the edge of her shirt to wipe them of imaginary dirt. Her red eyes shone and flashed with intelligence. "Those three would be lost without me. You can't handle three boys that stupid all on your own. And the quicker that we can find him, the quicker you can go home."

Sakura scoffed. "Very true. But that's pretty damn considerate," she said. There had to be something else. "What about you? What are you going to do with Orochimaru gone?"

"No clue. But I'm not inclined to just let Otogakure rot away, to be honest." Karin slipped back on her glasses and gave Sakura a piercing look. Her lips curled into a smirk. "Who knows? You might be looking at the next- fuck."

The pink haired girl watched her friend in question, the way her eyes flashed with an almost horrific anger, nails digging into the table and shoulders stiffening up painfully. Sakura watched her relax; the furrow in her brow falling away, the grimace of her lips pulling away, her legs uncrossing under the table and settling onto the ground as she stood.

"They're closer than I thought they would be. Masking their chakra, probably. They're coming at us full speed now," Karin said, her head cocked to the side as she scoped. Sakura, much less gracefully, stumbled out of her seat and shoved her seat in at the table. She grabbed their purchases and Karin's hand before exited the tea house in a frenzy, disregarding the looks they got at their hastiness. "The sheer volume of the chakra is incredible. And there's several of them."

Sakura burst open the door of the tea house and half shrieked into the empty street. "We didn't even leave a trail for them to follow!" she snapped, looking around the emptied road frantically. "Which way are they coming in?"

"The way we did. The village gates."

"Fuck," Sakura muttered, running a hand over their face.

"One of them can't be human. A dog, maybe. You did say they were using summons, right?" Karin said, still utterly collected. "How did you and Sasuke leave the battle scene?"

"We slid inside Manda's mouth," Sakura muttered, shivering in revulsion at the feeling that she had endured twice already. "And then Suigetsu summoned us before you and Juugo caught up."

"Fucking disgusting," Karin said with a curled lip, crossing her arms over her chest. "Either way, they were and are tracking us by scent. And they must have some incredible trackers for them to find your scent at such a far distance."

"They're too close. We need time," Sakura hissed, shoving the shopping back into Karin's chest and forming a seal. An Earth clone formed, shifting to life and the likeness of herself. She barked out orders quickly. "Hold them up for as long as you can. Make sure they don't figure out you're a clone."

The clone Sakura gave her a sharp nod, before sprinting off into the rooftops towards the village gates. The real Sakura began sprinting back to the hotel, Karin hot on her heels.

"This really isn't my day," she moaned, watching through the back of her mind as the clone whipped through trees and forestry with expertise. "Forget going home. We're gonna be dragged back to Konoha at this rate."

"And I thought I was supposed to be the pessimistic one," Karin snapped, speeding along beside her.

"Then I really don't wanna know what you're thinking."

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_A/N:_ _Writing Karin without her Sasuke-thirst is fun because I get so much more out of her character wise? Every thing else is just weighed down by it (i refer to her love for sasuke as sasuke-thirst because it was used as comedic relief SO MUCH until he decided to FUCKING STAB HER and then it was like ok wow more than thirst which is so fucked up all the injustice kishi has done to herr oh my goooddddd). And I just like the idea of Sakura and Karin being friends, with Karin acting like a big sister. I like it a lot. Remember to review and tell me what you think!_

_What did y'all think about 686? AND THE COVER SPREAD. SASUSAKU WESTERN AU. I'M STILL SO PUMPED. The cover spread kinda made up for the lack of SasuSaku in the chapter, but not Obito deciding to die when I just got over my hatred for him. Like. Wow. I was attached you guys._


End file.

Naruto, Drama, Romance